JPH01229319A - Output device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To attain efficient data output by calling an output position concerned from a storage area at the time of receiving output data in respective items so as to attain a moving processing. CONSTITUTION:A term printing position mobile equipment 7 sequentially calls printing position information in a term printing position storage area 6, which is previously stored in accordance with a received term section/printing position moving command which is received from a CPU 4, and a printing position command 7a is generated so that data are moved to the printing positions concerned. An output page buffer 9 temporarily stores a term character pattern received from a character generator 8 so that it is printed in the printing position corresponding to the command 7a received from the moving equipment 7. A stored dot image 9a is transmitted to a printer interface part 10. Since the printing positions of respective terms are already and collectively stored, it is unnecessary to execute a printing position moving processing for respective terms.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a format having one or more predetermined items, each of which determines the position at which information should be output. The present invention relates to an output device that outputs information to a recording medium having a recording medium.

[Prior art 1] Some of the data handled by an output device, such as a laser beam printer, has a format in which the position at which information should be output for each item is determined in advance, such as receipts and slips. There is.

Taking Figure 4 as an example, "Name", "Location", "Name", "Date of Birth", "
Information related to items such as "occupation" and "address or residence j" always has a fixed output position.

Conventionally, when sequentially outputting these items, a host computer using this output device repeatedly sends out the following series of commands.

FIG. 5 shows an example of the operation at the time of output. In other words, the output device is
According to the host computer's instructions, ■ Set (move) data to the corresponding output position.

■Output the contents of the applicable item.

By repeating this process for the number of items to be output (four times in the illustrated example), data for one page is output to the recording position of the corresponding format.

In an output device that handles a two-dimensional plane, such as a page printer, the command to move to the output position (2) above is generally specified using horizontal and vertical coordinates with respect to the screen. This establishes the desired output position.

Furthermore, for the output contents of (2), it is common to add, for example, a CR (carriage return) code to the end of the data to indicate the end of the data, thereby determining the data to be output.

Conventionally, these two types of information were repeated for each item and the corresponding format was output.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, the command (2) to move to the output position is a command (control command) for controlling the device, and is therefore somewhat complicated. Furthermore, as the resolution of output devices has increased in recent years, the number of bytes of data expressing coordinates has increased.

For example, in a page printer, if the top left position of the recording medium is (0,0) and the recording medium is moved 30mm to the right and 25mm downward (that is, (30,25)), the unit is t/ When lo00mm is set, for example, the following control command is sent.

QD25000; :+oooot In other words, 13 bytes are used for this many instructions. If each item is output content of 10 characters (bytes), more than half of the data to be sent will be data for positioning.

If the information output position for a certain item is completely undefined for each page, it is unavoidable to send positioning data like the one above, but if there is information that takes the same output position for a certain item as shown above, , a position movement command with exactly the same value will be issued for each page.

Also, for example, if the format of a slip is changed and the output position needs to be corrected, the output position is described for each item on each page in the conventional data format, so it is necessary to correct the output position for all of them. Similar corrections will have to be made, and errors may occur during this process.

Furthermore, the very fact that "print data" and "control commands" are written side by side is hardly desirable from the standpoint of separate identification on the output device side.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and the fixed output position for each item is stored all at once, and when the output data of each item is received, the corresponding output position is stored. The object of the present invention is to provide an output device that eliminates the need for conventional, repetitive, redundant, and complicated data input by reading the output location from a storage area and performing 8iIJ processing. It is.

[Means for Solving the Problem] To this end, in the present invention, in an output device that outputs data related to one or more items to a predetermined position for each item, output positions of data related to the items are stored in bulk. a means, a means for classifying input data by item,
The present invention is characterized in that it includes means for detecting the classification and calling up an already stored output position to set the position when outputting data.

[Function] According to the present invention, the output position storage means stores a fixed output position for each output item in advance, and the output data item classification means separates input data for each item, and upon output. The data classification is detected and the print position corresponding to the data is retrieved from the storage means to set the position.

[Example] Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of an output device in the form of a page printer, as an embodiment of the present invention. Here, l is a host computer that generates data such as letters, numbers, and symbols (hereinafter simply referred to as character data) and various control commands, as well as items that specify fixed output (hereinafter referred to as print) positions for each item. An item classification command for classifying the nine printing position commands is generated and inputted to the character generation control section 2, which constitutes the main part of the output device according to this example.

In the character generation control unit 2, 3 is an input buffer;
Item character data input from host computer 1,
Temporarily stores various control data, item print position commands, single item classification commands, etc. 4 is a CPt1 composed of, for example, a general-purpose microprocessor, which analyzes the input data stored in the input buffer 3 according to a program stored in the 110M4-1 that corresponds to the processing procedure described later with reference to FIG. Perform the appropriate processing. This CPU 4 generates an item character code 4a if the input data is item character data. If an item print position command is input, an item print position storage command 4b is generated, and if an item classification command is input, an item classification/print position movement command 4C is generated.

5 is an item printing position storage device according to this example, and CPII4
In accordance with the received item print position storage command 4b, the receiver sequentially stores the fixed print position of each item in the item print position storage area 6 constituted by, for example, a RAM or the like.

8 is a character generator which receives the received item character code 4a from the CPU 4 and generates an item character pattern 8a corresponding to the code.

7 is an item printing position mover according to the present example, and according to the item classification/printing position movement command 40 received from the CPU 4,
The print position information 6a of the item print position storage area 6 that has already been stored is sequentially called up, and a print position command 7a is generated so as to move to the corresponding print position.

9 is an output page buffer, in which the item character pattern 8a received from the character generator 7 is transferred to the item print value ff1f.
The receiver is temporarily stored in order to print at the print position according to the print position command 73 received from the J-choki 7. The stored dot image 9a is then sent to the printer interface section 10. The printer interface section lO is
A video signal 10a corresponding to the dot image stored in the output page buffer 9 is sent to a recording section 11 comprising, for example, a laser beam printer.

FIG. 2 shows one mode of data output according to this example. 2 in the diagram
1 is an item print position storage command, which previously issued a print position movement command repeatedly before printing each item.
In this example, this is performed all at once prior to data output. At this time, the printing position of each item is stored in the item printing position storage area 6.

Thereafter, output data for each item is issued in the order of the items as shown by reference numeral 22. At the end of one item of data, an item classification command 23 for separating each item of data is issued. This can be, for example, simple data commonly used to delimit data, such as a CR (carriage return) code. When this item classification command is received, the item printing positions that were initially stored collectively are sequentially referred to, and movement is made to the corresponding printing position for each item.

According to this example, since the printing positions of each item are already stored in bulk, there is no need to perform the printing position processing for each item.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the item printing position-batch storage and output processing procedure according to the above embodiment. In addition, (Sl) to (S9
) indicates each step number.

When the output starts, the host computer 1 starts transmitting the data code, and first reads input data one unit at a time (Sl). Next, it is determined whether or not all input data has been printed (S2), and if the determination is affirmative, the process is terminated.

If the determination is negative, it is checked whether the sent data is an item print position storage command (S3). If the determination is affirmative, the fixed printing position of each item is stored accordingly (S4). If the determination is negative, it is determined whether or not the data is to be printed (S5), and if the determination is affirmative, output processing of the item data (S6) is executed.

If a negative determination is made in step (S5), it is determined whether the sent data is an item classification command (S7).
. If the judgment is affirmative, the item printing position stored in bulk in step (S4) is called from the item printing position storage area 6 and moved to the corresponding item printing position (Sa), and if the judgment is negative, other printing / Control processing is performed (S9).

With the above processing, when printing on a recording medium with a format in which each item has a fixed print position, the operator does not have to input a command to adjust the print position one by one before printing that item. , it is possible to efficiently output organized data.

In addition, although the above embodiment describes the case where the present invention is applied to a page printer, the present invention is not limited to this, and it goes without saying that the present invention can be easily applied to printers of other types. .

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, when outputting where each item has a unique printing position, such as recording for something with a predetermined format, this individual printing position can be adjusted. By first memorizing all of
There is no need to add print position 8 commands, and there is an effect that efficient and organized data output can be performed.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of an output device installed in a page printer as an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing one mode of data output according to this embodiment. FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a format in which each item has a fixed printing position; FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing an aspect of data output by a conventional device. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1...Host computer, 2...Character generation control part, 3...Input buffer, 4...CPU. 5... Item print position storage area, 6... Item print position storage area, 7... Item print position mover, 8... Character generator, 9... Output page buffer, 10... -Printer interface section, IT...recording section. Figure 3

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1) An output device that outputs data relating to one or more items to a predetermined position for each item, comprising means for collectively storing output positions of data relating to the item, and input data. An output device comprising: means for classifying the data according to the item; and means for detecting the classification and calling an already stored output position to set the position when outputting the data.